this Prince gratified them in one thing they started another Game hoping at last to ruine this Excellent Prince by his own Concessions as at length they did for these sober Protestants were resolved never to leave asking till they had brought their King to be their Equal first and at last under them This procedure did in part discover the Design and necessitated him to stretch his Prerogative to find some small Relief for his urgent and pressing Necessities by Monopolies Knight-mony Loans upon Privy Seals and at last Ship-money great parts of which Moneys were employed upon the Building Ships for the encrease of the Royal Navy which he did to that height that it was so Invincible to any Humane Power that though Sir William Batten in 1648. carried a very Considerable part of it to his Now Majesty yet the remainder of it with a small Addition beat the Dutch for all their many years Preparations Yet first all those that signalized themselves by opposing the King in these Levies most were chosen into the following Parliaments as the best Patriots and Common-wealth-men and these again made it their business in Parliament by joyning with the Rebellious Scots to involve us in that accursed War which endangered not only the ruine of our Government and Trade but our very Being In the beginning of that War the Parliament-side went down and in likelihood the King and his Party had finally prevailed if the Scots had not broke out again upon the solicitation of the English Parliament without the least cause given them by the King And during this time and afterwards too * Page 12. Sect. 19. Of the Relations and Observations upon the Parliament begun in 1640. pag. 143. Sect. 5. And in the Remonstrance of many Thousands in and about the City of London dated Mar. 22. 1648. to the Army is this Passage Then shall those faithful Persons who hazarded all for the Parliament and many of them lent more than their whole Estates and now live in Prison nay starve for want of it not be put to devour Cathedrals and ransack the Monuments of the Dead but be honestly paid with thanks and requitals then shall not the Publick Faith be out pawned and so little care taken to Redeem it whilst Millions of Treasure have been conveyed beyond the Seas Pag. 3. I suppose this was not all private Treasures though the loss is the same to the Nation if it were so Walker in his History of Presbytery and Independency hath acquainted us That many of the Parliament Grandees who besides their own Wealth which was great had drawn in most of the Treasure and Plate of the Nation on specious pretences and the Publick Faith sent huge sums over to the Banks in Holland and the Western Plantations that in case the King should finally prevail they might have a place of Retreat where they might enjoy the Blood and Tears of the poor deluded People in safety and security But this was not all during this War the English Trade both at home and abroad was almost totally Ruin'd many Thousands of Tradesmen were either Undone or Killed and Destroyed or forced to seek quieter Habitations beyond the Seas above one half of the Nation the West and the North were almost totally ruined and depopulated by the War and the other half by excessive Taxes Excise Sequestrations c. by all which ways I have seen an Account Printed Relation of the Parliament begun 1640. p. 8. Sect. 14. That there was about Forty Millions of Money Collected and Spent within the space of a few years by that Parliament side only not one farthing of which turned to any account to the Nation But in the interim the wise Dutch drive on the Trade of almost the whole World and only furnished the King with Armes and Ammunition for the Jewels of the Crown and dealt with the Parliament for Timber The last cited Remonstrance to the Army p. 4. which they sold of the Crown-Lands Church-Lands and the Sequestred Estates of the Gentry and Nobility which Timber the Dutch wisely employed in Building Ships to ruine the prevailing side when the War was done and then they did not question but to be the Soveraigns of the Ocean and of all the Trade and Commerce that is exercised on it and to speak the truth they had then some reason to hope it might have happened so For if England had once been brought under no other State could have disputed the point with them and England was then preparing it self for ruine by giving the Hollanders more advantages than their Modesty could have wished for And the Dutch were so confident that the Success would answer their Expectations that they grew impatient to have Possession of their almost assured Mastery and before our Internal Broyls were over and the Nation setled any way in the Year 1652. set upon our Fleet in the Downs and if the Advantage of almost two to one and an unexpected Assault had not been over-ruled by the Providence of God and the unparallell'd Valour of the English they had certainly destroyed them as they did the Spanish Fleet in the same place about Ten Years before and although the English fortune and Courage prevailed then and in the whole Course of that War and brought down the Craft Treachery and Pride of the Hollanders yet was the whole Glory of these Victories in which the Rump boasted so much next Gods Mercy to these poor Nations owing solely to the Providence of that Prince they had but a little before so basely Murdered as an Enemy to God and his People and then stiled the Tyrant As Mr. Coke hath well observed in his Preface to the fourth Treatise Of the Improvement of England To which excellent Discourses I refer my Reader All that I shall infer from hence is that I hope the Nation will never run the same hazard of losing all their Foreign Trade again by siding with factious Men against the Monarchy The Rump having beaten the Dutch found a more dangerous Enemy at home and being generally now hated by the People were without any difficulty turned out by Oliver Cromwel their Hypocritical Servant 1654. who to secure himself in his ill gotten Possession of the Government made an unsetled and dishonourable Peace with the Dutch Which they imployed in Building much larger and more Men of War than they had before to prevent the Ruine of their States by another English War which could not be concealed from Oliver who likewise encreased the English Fleet with many more and considerable Men of War as the last Cited Author tells us As O. C. lost the English the Advantage of their Naval Victories by that Peace he made with the Dutch which left the English nothing but a little unprofitable Glory and the blows they had received from the Hollanders whilst it gave them opportunity to grow rich and prepare for another Attempt So our Tyrant fell soon after into another
extravagance he had always an Enthusiastick Conceit that God had raised him up to pull down the Whore of Babylon the Man of Sin the Antichristian Pope of Rome and this led him into a War with Spain believing that Prince to be the only Bullwark of the Papacy and his Attempts upon the Islands in the West Indies and the Plate Fleets belonging to Spain not having that success he desired by reason of their distance or perhaps being out-witted by the French Ministers he fell in the next place in Conjunction with France upon the Spaniards in Flanders in which War Dunkirk was taken and cunningly Surrendred to Oliver by the French in hopes to encourage our silly Upstart to go on and help them to Conquer the rest but tu … â—atal mischiefs attended this The first was that our Spanish Trade which was one of the best and most profitable the English then had left was interrupted and in danger to be totally lost as all the Eastern Traffick was rendred very unsecure by the Ostenders The Second was That the Ballance of Christendom was broken and the French Interest brought to that height as to over-power all the Neighbouring Princes and in some sort to Compel His Majesty before he was well setled after his Restitution to resel them Dunkirk But these things were above the Politicks of our Oliver who was a better Souldier than a Statesman How the Domestick Trade of England was likely to flourish in this Mans time may be easily conjectured by any man that will but reflect on the Vast Taxes were then Arbitrarily raised without Parliaments and the Standing Armies that were then kept on Foot only because he durst not Disband them who had no other Title than the Sword had given him and when God called him in the Year 1658. to give an account for all the Villanies he had perpetrated with so much Treachery Perjury and Impiety neither his Son Richard who Succeeded him nor any of those various Governments which within the space of Two Years followed were able to Establish themselves so that during that time there was nothing but Treachery Rapine Confusion and Distrust to be found in the English Nation and it was only Gods infinite Mercy and Goodness which rescued us and our Trade from total Ruine by the peaceable Restitution of our Now most gracious Soveraign When His Majesty returned he brought nothing over with him but a Vast Debt contracted in his Exile to preserve him and his in a mean Condition from starving and he found nothing here at home but an empty Exchequer a People exhausted with Twenty Years War and Misery all his Pallaces disfurnished his Magazines rifled his Armory wasted his Ammunition spent or imbezzel'd and the remainder of the Army which had great Arrears due to them to be Disbanded and Paid off All these things call'd for large Supplies and they were as Loyally and freely granted by our Parliaments as Generously imployed by His Majesty to these uses But then these Good-Common-Wealth-men who had Taxed and Plundered the Nation without mercy for twenty years before all on a suddain turned tender hearted and begun to bemoan the good Peoples hardships in the payment of such Sums as their own Villanies and Treasons had made necessary and not contented with this Skynneri Motuus Compositi encited the Dutch by large Promises of Assistance to enter another War with us which though we prevailed had fatal Consequences the Plague falling in with it Bedloes nar of the P. Plot. for the Burning of London pag. 14. Oats his Nar. Arti. the 34. and a great part of the City of London being Burnt at the same time which Fire is said to have been began by some of these godly Male-Contents on purpose without doubt to promote Trade though the whole blame is now laid upon the Jesuits who might possibly put the Fifth Monarch-men upon it and hath been since owned I Consider That I am Writing a Preface to a small Book and therefore endeavour to be short and for ought I know may be dark but if all this be reflected on as it ought it will be a wonder not that our Trade is so little but that it is not totally Ruin'd But then my dear Countrymen may not Heaven and Earth stand amazed at our Stupidity and folly if we shall still go on stubbornly in those very ways which we have found so destructive to us but there is a greater wonder in it yet we stabb and wound our own Vitals our Trade and Commerce and at the same time pretend we are horribly afraid others should ruin us many years hence we caress and cherish these very Men and Factions that once before Impoverished us to almost Beggery we are hard at Work to ruine that Government by making it odious to the People under which England hath flourished in Wealth and Power in Reputation and Peace at home and abroad so many Ages and to set up one in the stead of it which within the memory of Man so narrowly missed of Ruining us forever Do you think another domestick War will encrease the Wealth or Trade or Navigation or Reputation of England Consider your Sea coast Towns from Dover to Barwick and observe how many of them are falling down or empty of Inhabitants or possest by Men that are able to drive no Trades Consider the Fishery of all sorts consider the falls of your Rents and Farms and when you have thought seriously of them think once more whether the pretended fears of Popery and Arbitrary Government ought so to possess you and to keep you intirely from reflecting on what doth more immediatly concern you and which if but a little longer Neglected will end if not in Popery in Beggery if not in Arbitrary Government in Anarchy War and Confusion But though Men may Consider these things as much or as little as they please yet I crave the Liberty to Conclude upon the whole That whoever promotes Factions in Church or State is an Enemy to Trade and Commerce and that when ever the Government of this or any other Country is indangered the Traffick of that place will suffer proportionably so that let them pretend what they will to the contrary they that promote our present Disturbances are as great Enemies to the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation and all that are any way concerned in Trade as they are either to the Crown or the Church THE SECOND PART OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN and FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION HIS Majesty had no sooner declared the Long Loyal Parliament Dissolved and by His Royal Writ Commanded another to be chosen to meet the Sixth of March following but the Subjects in every place became divided amongst themselves and there being men not only of different but of opposite Interests offered to the People the choice was rendred very difficult and uncertain but the Opposition Feuds and Passions of the Contending Parties was apparent and certain enough The Dissenters
judgment as well as others and if I be adjudged an enemy of the Commons of England for my pains I cannot help it only I have not medled with the Validity of the pardon in all this nor I think never will and so I have not offended against that Vote The Conclusion I shall draw from hence is that the Lords had reason to put the Tryal of the five Popish Lords first and that the Commons necessitated them so to do by that Extraordinary Vote by starting a new Controversy about the Jurisdiction of the Bishops in all Capital causes and by refusing them liberty to do as they always had done before that is to withdraw upon Leave with the usual protestations entered all which things were not presently to be given up nor could suddenly be determined The rest of that day was spent in two Conferences the one concerning the Habeas Corpus Act and the other about the Tryals in which the Long reasons I mentioned were delivered On Tuesday the 27th of May The Habeas Corpus Bill was agreed at a Conference betwixt the two Houses Then a Message was sent by the Lords to the Commons to acquaint them that his Majesty was coming in his Robes who accordingly sent for the Commons and having passed 1. An Act for the reingrossing the Records of Fines burnt or lost in the late Fire in the Temple 2. An Act for the better securing of the Liberty of the Subject and for preventing imprisonment beyond Seas Which is that I call the Habeas Corpus Act for shortness Which were all that had been got ready for his Royal assent in this Session of Parliament His Majesty made a short Speech to this effect My Lords and Gentlemen I Was in good hopes that this Session would have produced great good to the Kingdom and that you would have gone on unanimously for the good thereof but to my great grief I see that there are such differences between the two Houses that I am afraid very ill effects will come of them I know but one way of Remedy for the present assuring you that in the mean time I shall shew my sincerity with the same Zeal I met you here and therefore my Lord Chancellor I command you to do as I have Ordered you Who immediately Prorogued both Houses to the 14th day of August following The news of this Prorogation of the Parliament was no sooner spread about the Nation but the cry was taken up by the zealous Impostors that it was done of purpose to hinder the Tryal of the Popish Lords for as for the E. of D. the People were generally unconcern'd what came of him And dreadful Stories were told in Coffee-houses Ale-houses Taverns and Meeting houses of the danger of Popery and what great favourers they had at Court not sparing his Majesty But this was not all the Act for Regulating Printing expiring with this Session of which no care was taken notwithstanding his Majesty recommended it so seriously to the Parliament by the Lord Chancellour at the opening of it The Nation became presently so pestred with a swarm of Lying Seditious treasonable and scandalous Pamphlets Papers and Pictures that a man would have thought Hell had been broken loose His Majesty the Church the Government were represented every day by them in the most odious manner that spite falsehood and malice could invent to beget a disaffection in the people to the Government and to involve us in another Rebellion And if any man presumed to Defend them he was presently a Papist in Masquerade a Tory or Tantivy man and very often threatned with the Parliament All which was done without doubt out of as pure kindness to his Majesty and to beget honour to the Government and tended as apparently to the Interest and Safety of the Protestant Religion as the Jews Crys of Crucify him Crucify him did to the delivery of our Saviour out of the hands of Pilate There was an Accident that began in this Session of Parliament and received its occasional being from some Distemper'd Spirits In March 1679 there was a Speech said to be made in the House of Lords by a certain * This Speech is Printed in a Pamphlet called An impartial account of divers remarkable Proceedings in the last Session of Parliament London 1679. folio Earl and by the Diffenters and Commonwealth Party spread about the three Kingdoms with a mighty Zeal which in Scotland was followed with the usual effects of such like Speeches and in regard that it may administer much consolation to that Party to read it over again that were so well pleased with it before I will reprint it here word for word My Lords You are appointing of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day next week I do not know how well what I have to say may be received for I never study either to make my Court well or to be popular I always speak what I am commanded by the Dictates of the Spirit within me There are some Considerations that concern England so neerly that without them you will come far short of safety and quiet at home We have a little Sister and she hath no Breasts what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a wall we will build on her a palace of silver if she be a door we will enclose her with boards of Cedar We have several Little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland the Foreign Protestants are a Wall the only Wall and defence to England upon it you may build Palaces of Silver Glorious Palaces The protection of the Protestants abroad is the greatest power and security the Crown of England can attain to and which can only help us to give check to the growing greatness of France Scotland and Ireland are two doors either to let in good or mischief upon us they are much weakened by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to Inclose them with Boards of Cedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes one goes first sometimes the other in at doors but the other is always following close at hand In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery in Scotland Slavery went before and Popery was to follow I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have Jurisdiction there it is an Ancient Kingdom they have an Illustrious Nobility a Gallant Gentry a Learned Clergy and an understanding worthy People but yet we cannot think of England as we ought without reflecting on the condition they are in They are under the same Prince and the influence of the same Favourites and Councils when they are hardly dealt with can we that are the Richer expect better usage for 't is certain that in all Absolute Governments the poorest Countries are always most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility
and Gentry there cannot enjoy their Royalties their Shreivaldoms and their Stewardaries which they and their Ancestors have possessed for several Hundreds of years but that now they are enjoyned by the Lords of the Council to make deputations of their Authorities to such as are their known Enemies Can we expect to enjoy our Magna Charta long under the same Persons and Administration of affairs If the Council Table there can imprison any Noble-man or Gentleman for several years without bringing him to Tryal or giving the least reason for what they do can we expect the same men will preserve the Liberty of the Subject here I will acknowledge I am not well vers'd in the particular Laws of Scotland but this I do know that all the Northern Countreys have by their Laws an undoubted and inviolable Right to their Liberties and Properties yet Scotland hath outdone all the Eastern and Southern Countreys in having their Lives Liberties and Estates subjected to the Arbitrary will and pleasure of them that Govern They have lately plundered and harassed the Richest and Wealthiest Countries of that Kingdom and brought down the Barbarous Highlanders to devour them and all this without a most colourable pretence to do it Nor can there be found a reason of State for what they have done but that those wicked Ministers designed to procure a Rebellion at any rate which as they managed was only prevented by the miraculous hand of God or otherwise all the Papists in England would have been armed and the fairest opportunity given in the just time for the execution of that wicked and bloody design the Papists had and it is not possible for any man that duly considers it to think other but that those Ministers that acted that were as guilty of the Plot as any of the Lords that are in question for it My Lords I am forced to speak this the plainer because till the pressure be fully and clearly taken off from Scotland 't is not possible for me or any thinking man to believe that good is meant us here We must still be upon our guard apprehending that the Principle is not changed at Court and that these men that are still in place and Authority have that influence upon the Mind of our excellent Prince that he is not nor cannot be that to us that his own Nature and Goodness would incline him to I know your Lordships can order nothing in this but there are those that hear me can put a perfect cure to it until that be done the Scotch Weed is like Death in the Pot. Mers in Olla But there is something too now I consider that most immediately concerns us their Act of Twenty two Thousand men to be ready to invade us upon all occasions This I hear that the Lords of the Council there have treated as they do all other Laws and expounded it into a Standing Army of six thousand men I am sure we have reason and right to beseech the King that that Act may be better considered in the next Parliament there I shall say no more for Scotland at this time I am afraid your Lordships will think I have said too much having no concern there But if a French Noble-man should come to dwell in my House and Family I should think it concerned me to ask what he did in France for if he were there a Felon a Rogue a Plunderer I should desire him to live else-where and I hope your Lordships will do the same thing for the Nation if you find the same cause My Lords give me leave to speak two or three words concerning our other Sister Ireland thither I hear is sent Douglas's Regiment to secure us against the French Besides I am credibly informed that the Papists have their Arms restored and the Protestants are not many of them yet recovered from being the suspected Party the Sea-Towns as well as the Inland are full of Papists that Kingdom cannot long continue in the English hands if some better care be not taken of it This is in your power and there is nothing there but is under your Laws therefore I beg that this Kingdom at least may be taken in consideration together with the State of England for I am sure there can be no safety here if these doors be not shut up and made sure Whether any such Harangue was made in that August assembly or not I cannot say but I am sure that all the Seditious and Treasonable Pamphlets that have been since Printed are but flourishes upon this Text and an extract of those that went before them the very model of the last Rebellion and probably the design of an other But England and Ireland are not as yet ripe for so generous an undertaking But to shew you how matters past in Scotland I will Transcribe the very words of my Author and leave the credit of them with him By the very next post after this Speech was said to have been spoken The Spirit of Popery speaking in the Phanatical Protestants pag. 73. London 1680. fol. Forty written Coppies of it were sent from London to Edenbrough and the Fanaticks grew so insolent and so daring upon it that several Loyal Gentlemen wrote up accounts to what height of Insolences this Speech had blown up the Enemies of the Church and the Monarchy and that they had just reasons to fear that very dangerous attempts if not a down-right Rebellion would speedily ensue thereupon but those reports found not too much credit at London where the world was made to believe by men whose interest it was that they should not be credited that they were but the inventions of the Duke of Lauderdale for whose advantage in that conjucture it was that they should be believed My Author goes on that he is confident such is his charity he that made it The Effects would not have done so had he known the true State of Scotland which few English men do or foreseen the evil effects which it immediately had in encouraging the Covenanteers to Assassinate Massacre and Rebel For now they begin to look and speak big in Edenbrough and many of them were heard and seen upon the Crown of the Causway who had sneeked about in darkness before And as for the disaffected parts of the Country they now display'd the Banners of Jesus Christ as they Blasphemously call'd their colours at their Conventicles every where and their Preachers now told them that the time of their deliverance and of Gods taking Vengeance upon his Enemies was now at hand only they must repent and be strong and of a great courage and fight the Battles of the Lord. They also threatned in all places such as they thought were seriously active against them talking of great Changes and Revolutions in England and in Publick Places dropt Lists of the Names of those men whom they had a mind should fall by Heroical Hands And in the first place naming Dr. Sharp the Archbishop of
by which means they were kept together not daring to part to plunder and their Number was also kept from increasing as otherwise it might have done But yet the Council knowing the Rebels could not continue long together would not fight them till his Majesty should send them orders so to do and a general His Majesty and the Council here resolved to send down his Grace the Duke of Monmouth who had given good proof of his Courage in Flanders and elsewhere who undertaking the enterprise against the Rebels went post into Scotland for that purpose The Rebels in the interim having possest themselves of Glasgow grew insolent at first and published a Proclamation in these terms WE the Officers of the Covenanted Army do require and command you the Inhabitants of the Burgh of Glasgow to furnish us with Twenty four Carts and sixty Baggage Horses for removing our Provision from this Place to our Camp whereever we shall set down the same and to abide with us for that end during our pleasure under the pain of being reputed our Enemies and proceeded against accordingly And another thus WE the Officers of the Covenanted Army do require and command the Magistrates of Glasgow to Extend and Banish forth thereof all Archbishops Bishops and Curates their Wives Bairns and Servants and all other families and persons concern'd in the Kings Army within eight and forty houres after the Publishing hereof under the Highest pains You have seen before what bad Subjects they were and these two will show what insolent Masters they proved but their Dominion was not long That which first amated them was the news of the Prorogation of the Parliament in England upon which they chiefly depended and in all probability had never risen but that they were forced into a belief that they were sure on that side not that I think the Parliament would have been any way serviceable to them but they were made to believe so in Scotland where any thing that looked that way was magnified above its real bigness But that being gone and the rest of Scotland continuing quiet or Arming against them and their friends in Edenborough being kept from joyning with them they began to suspect the worst and so fell a little from their first fury and published this second Declaration for their Vindication AS it is not unknown to a great part of the World how happy the Church of Scotland was whilst they enjoyed the Ordinances of Jesus Christ in purity and power of which we have been deplorably deprived by the establishment of Prelalacy So it is Evident not only to impartial persons but to professed Enemies with what unparallel'd patience and constancy the People of God have endured all the Cruelty Injustice and Oppression that the Will and Malice of Prelates and Malignants could invent and exercise And being most unwilling to Act any thing which might import opposition to Lawful Authority or engage the Kingdom in a War although we have all along been groaning under the overturning the work of Reformation Corruptions of Doctrine Slighting of Worship Despising of Ordinances the changing the Antient Church Discipline and Government Thrusting out so many of our faithful Ministers from their Charges Confining streightly Imprisoning exiling yea and putting to death many of them and intruding upon their Flocks a company of insufficient and scandalous persons and Fining Confining Imprisoning Torturing Tormenting Scourging and Stigmatizing poor people Plundring their Goods Quartering upon them rude Souldiers Selling their persons to forreign Plantations * * Horning is Out Lawing There is nothing like intercommuning with us for if any man hold any correspondency with the offender he is to be adjudged a Rebel of the same guiltiness all which severities they themselves first set up and practised against others The Burthen of Issachar Printed 1646. pag. 41 42. Horning and Intercommuning many of both whereby great Numbers in every Corner of the Land were forced to leave their Dwellings Wives Children and Relations and made to wander as Pilgrims still in hazard of their Lives none daring to reset harbour or supply though starving or so much as to speak to them even upon death bed without making themselves obnoxious to the same punishments and these things Acted under coulour of Law in effect tending to banish not only all sense of Religion but also to extinguish Natural affection even amongst persons of the nearest Relations and likewise groaning under the intollerable Yoak of Oppression in our Civil Interests our Bodies Liberties and Estates So that all manner of outrages have been most arbitrarily exercised upon us through a tract of several years past particularly in the year 1678 by sending among us an Armed Host of Barbarous Savages contrary to all Laws and Humanity and by laying on us several Impositions and Taxes as formerly So of late by a meeting of Prelimited and Over-awed Members in the Convention of Estates in July 1678 for keeping up of an Armed Force intrusted as to a great part of it into the hands of avowed Papists or favourers of them by whom sundry Invasions have been made upon us and most exorbitant abuses and incredible Insolencies committed against us and we being continually sought after while meeting in Houses for divine Worship Ministers and People frequently apprehended and most rigorously used and so being necessitated to attend the Lords Ordinances in Fields in the most desart places and there also often hunted out and assaulted to the effusion of our bloud and killing of some whereby we were inevitably constrained either to defend our selves by Arms at these meetings or to be altogether deprived of the Gospel preached by faithful Ministers and made absolute Slaves At one of which Meetings upon the first of June instant Captain Graham of Claver House being Warranted by a late Proclamation to kill whomever he found in Arms at Field Conventicles making resistance did furiously assault the people assembled and further to provoke did cruelly bind like Beasts a Minister with some others whom he had that very same Morning found in Houses and several being kill'd on both sides they knowing certainly that by Law they behoved if apprehended to die they did stand to their own defence and continue together and there after many of our Friends and Country-men being under the same oppression expecting the same measure did freely offer their assistance We therefore thus inevitably and of absolute Necessity forced to take this last Remedy the Magistrates having shut the Door by a Law against application that what ever our Grievances be either in things Civil or Sacred we have not the Priviledge of a Supplicant do judg our selves bound to declare That these with many other Horrid Grievances in Church and State which we purpose to Manifest hereafter are the true Causes of this our lawful and innocent self-defence And we do most solemnly in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all hearts declare That the true reasons of our continuing
Independency prevailing at the same time in England on it went with the same force and ruined the poor Kirk of Scotland and made this Covenanting Nation the veriest Slaves in the world and ever since Presbytery there as well as in England have been in a feeble state and they were opprest in their civil Interests Liberties and Freedoms and made such Slaves by a standing Army of English and two Forts which his Majesty hath since demolished that a Scot in those days durst not have walked as I have been told with a Cudgel in his hand and Parliament general Assembly or any other Convention they were never to have more nor any other Address but what they got by most humble Supplication only they had no Bishops so that if his Majesty should restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Crown and Kingdoms the Scots would have no reason to thank him for the favour But in the interim I wonder they can reflect thus upon the time when their calamities began which was the very year they sold his Majesties Father into the hands of his Enemies who basely murthered him and not be confounded with horror and shame at the Villany they then did nor yet reflect upon the Justice of God which hath pursued them ever since through all the changes that have happened and having first made their dear Covenanting Brethren of England to begin the Chastisement of them hath gone on from time to time to baffle all their attempts to recover their Lost Estate and they have reason to believe he will do so till the opinions and persons of that schismatical Confederacy be rooted out of the World And here let our English Dissenters too be pleased to remember they have done worse then the Scots for they murthered that Prince which the Scots only sold and by how much they have smarted less then the Scots so much the more is behind and the Justice of God will not be restrained by the Act of Indemnity but he will certainly recompense them according to their deserts with so much the greater severity because they have abused the Lenity of his Anointed and his long-sufferance I shall add but one word more and then see the Catastrophe of these Rebells and that is an humble Request to the Loyal Scots that they would not take this amiss for I heartily applaud their fidelity to his Majesty and acknowledge they deserve to partake of his Royal bounty and Princely favour equally with the English and I wish them all that prosperity and happiness they can desire for they are no otherwise concerned in the Covenanters then the Church of England men are in the evil Actions of the English Dissenters The 20th of June the Duke of Monmouth who went Post into Scotland for that Service went to the Army which the Council of Scotland had prepared for him which lay then at a place called Blackburn where he viewed and muster'd all the Forces and put all things in a readiness to encamp the next day he marched with his Army to Moorhead and the day following to Bothwell bridge Where the Enemy lay about eight Miles distant from his second Camp The place where they then were was called Hamilton Park and was well chosen if it had or could have been well defended for there was no passage to it but over Bothwell bridge which they had well lined with Musqueteers and Barricadoed with Stones Cart Wheels and the like The Dukes Army marched in great silence and Order and had been upon the Rebels before they had taken the Allarm but that their foremost Guards discovered them by the light of their Matches And so they put themselves into a posture of Defence The Duke found the Rebels in two Bodies half a Mile one from the other the foremost Party which was the weakest in Number lay near the Bridge the other near their Camp as high as the liitle Park where they stood in their Orders and Ranks Major Oglethorp posted himself upon the first approach near the Bridge with the Dragoons and the rest of the Dukes Army drew up upon a Hill fronting Hamilton Park about a mile from the Bridge the River being between the two Armies As soon as the Duke came to Major Oglethrop's Post there came out to him from the Rebels one David Haine and another of their Preachers who presented to his Grace the Declaration I have recited Printed and a Petition signed by Robert Hamilton their General in the name of the Covenanted Army then in Arms in which they prayed that the Terms of their Declaration might be made good and that a safe Conduct might be granted to some of their Number to address themselves to his Grace in this Matter To which the Duke replyed that he would not treat with them upon their Declaration the terms of which were contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Land and such as he would not nor could grant as indeed they were too high to have been offered after a Victory much more in the first approaches of a General with a better though smaller Army then theirs But then he told them that if they would lay down their Armes he would receive them into the Kings mercy And with this Answer the two Preachers went back desiring some time to consider which the Duke granted them About half an hour after the Rebels sent a Paper by a Drummer representing that they were informed that his Grace came from England with terms to be offered to them and they desired to know what he had to propose that they might advise whether the Terms were such as they could accept of Whether this were so or no it was very imprudent in them to send this Message before they had excused themselves in relation his first demands and besides this was a mighty slight to the General to demand an account of his private Instructions by a Drummer with a Paper when as it had been fitter to have sent two or three of the best Gentlemen in their Army to have asked this favour with all the Courtship imaginable though their Forces had been much stronger then they were For this indeed was it that made them thus insolent their Preachers had doubtless informed them that the Dukes Army was less then theirs as it is said it was And hence they concluded very ignorantly they might ask what they pleased and have it The Duke was not idle all this while but had ordered his Cannon to be brought down from the Body of the Army and Planted near the Bridge and with them he had Drawn down some part of his Horse and Foot whilst they were treating and took no notice of what he did or at least did not oppose it so they were every moment in a worse condition and he was in a worse condition and he in a better So that being netled with this contempt of theirs he sent away their Drummer with this answer that since they
done in the Names of the whole by the Commons in Parliament and if it be the Duty of every English man to fight for his King if occasion require against any Party that ever shall hereafter pretend to have the Authority of both or either of the Houses to back them 13 Car. 2. cap. 6. as I humbly conceive is most plain then why may not they right his Majesty with their Pens who must do it with their Swords why may they not Approve his Cause as well as Defend it And if this be not allowed Any King of England may be Deposed and Murthered as the late King was for if there be a Blind Obedience due to all the Votes of Parliament 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. §. 2. and no man may in any Case judge them Illegal and Unreasonable then must all men absolutely Submit to them and obey them and the Consequence is if any future Parliament shall Vote any future King or or Monarchy it self a Grievance to the Nation and those that stand by them Enemies to the Kingdom if no man may Contradict such a Vote nor any Number of Men how great soever Umpire betwixt the King and his Great Council that is Defend him against his Parliament the effect will Certainly follow and as this is the natural Tendance of these Principles as we saw in the Late Troubles so I can conceive no other cause why they should be now again insinuated into the Heads of the Rabble For these Men who pretend to reverence the Three Last Parliaments at such a Prodigious rate The late Long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners The Modest Vindication of the Two last Parliaments p. 11. do traduce that which went immediately before most abominably and those who are so tender of the Votes of these care as little for the Established Lawes of the former as I do for the Decrees of the Council of Trent or of the Synod of Dort So that it is plain it is not respect to Parliaments as Parliaments that makes them thus obsequious but as made up of such a Sort of men and Driving on such Designs and Interests To return then Gentlemen from this long Digression which I have inserted only to Justifie You I will Conclude That as you have begun bravely so you must go thro with the business or Expect a Revenge from the Opposite Party equal to their Rage and tho I Know you do not fear them yet I would Advise you not to be too Secure of them but let your Vigilance Industry and Application to all Sorts of Men be equal to theirs at least and then it is Ten thousand to one you shall never try either theirs or your own Valour and as your Case is better so let it inspire you with more Resolution to Stand and Fall with it and his Most hearty Prayers for a good Success upon all your Loyal Undertakings and Designs shall never be wanting who is Your most Devoted Servant THE Third Part OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN and FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION HIS Majesty by the Blessing of GOD having Supprest the short Scotch Rebellion which in great part miscarried by the timeing of it tho no human fore-sight on their part could have prevented that His Majesty first Proroguing and then Dissolving that Parliament which seem'd to be the occasion of it with such Secrecy and Quickness that their Friends at London could give them no previous Notice of his Intentions so to do So that besides the total disappointing them of all that Countenance Ayd and Assistance they promised themselves from England many of their Friends at home whose Crimes being less had not the same necessity or whose Zeal was not of that fiery temper with theirs and therefore were prudently resolved tho they wished well to the design yet not to hazard their sweet Lives and Fortunes in it till they saw what Success these first Venturers had who hearing of the Prorogation of the Parliament and being doubtless admonished by their London Friends at the same time not to stir during this short Recess as they then thought it would be layd by all thoughts of Joyning with them and Augmenting their Numbers and the Privy Councils in both Nations attending solely to that business it was Extinguished almost as easily as it began Upon which His Majesty by his Royal Proclamation Dissolved this Parliament and Issued out Writs for another to Sit at Westminster the Seventeenth day of October 1679. Hoping his Subjects duly reflecting upon the Miscarriages of the Last House of Commons and the Danger the Nation had so narrowly escaped of Being involved in another destructive Intestine War at a time when the Victorious Arms of France hung like a dreadful Cloud over our heads and the High Discontents of the Popish Party which were inflamed and inraged both by the Discovery and Prosecutions of the late Plot lay broyling in the Bowels of the Nation would proceed with more Prudence and Caution in the Next Elections and send Him up men of Better Tempers or that at least these Gentlemen by that Act seeing He was resolved to keep the Reins in his own hands and to let them Sir or Dissolve them according as they behaved themselves would thereby be kept in better awe for the future and make use of a little more calmness in their Proceedings if it were but to continue their Being But alas His Majesty soon found himself deceived in his Expectation the common people who see with other mens eyes and follow as they are led and that is for the most part the wrong way were easily perswaded to believe in the first place that this Parliament was Prorogued and Dissolved onely to prevent the Tryal of the Popish Lords in the Tower tho the Not Trying of them was one of the greatest Causes that Moved his Majesty to it as appears plainly both by the Journals of both the Houses and his Majesties Speech in the Conclusion of that Session of Parliament and altho these Five Lords were brought to the Bar and the Commons summon'd to give in Evidence against them that very day that they were Prorogued they refused to do it And on the other side the Malecontents rejoyced greatly in it being well assured that the same Men would be chosen again and so made use of this Dissolution as a means to incense the People against the King and the Government and to increase the real or pretended fears of Men by their Loud Clamours against French Pensioners Popery Arbitrary Government and the like which both in discourse and Print the Press being now at Liberty from its former restraint they objected with equal Confidence and Falshood against the Loyal Gentlemen that had opposed them But besides these general Charges they made special use of two things that fell out in the last Parliament and that had a mighty influence upon the Minds of the populace and other Unthinking men The first of which was to
Abolishing Episcopacy and setting up Presbytery To which no Hand that had five Fingers was Refused and that George Lord Goring then a Boy set his hand to one of them in the right I believe of his Mother a good Lady much Addicted to that Party Fuller Ib. pag. 24. Preachers hands set to it and those Collected out of 25. Counties Yet afterwards Especially in the beginning of the Last Rebellion when they had any great Design to bring about which they had reason to expect would be opposed Next to bringing great Numbers of mean and tumultuous people down to White-Hall and Westminster-Hall with rude and loud Clamours to Say over again what they had first inspired into them This I now mention of Sending into the City of London and the Remoter Corporations and Counties of Petitions Complaints Remonstrances and Declarations to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament 13 Car. 2. cap. 5. for alteration of Matters established by Law redress of Pretended Grievances in Church or State or other publick Concernments was one special means they often made use of and that with great Success These Petitions as the Learned Dr. Hammond tells us Vind. of the Liturgy Sect. 28. cap. 2. Short View of the late Troubles p. 83 pro 81. were for the most part framed and put into the Peoples hands even in set prescribed forms and then committed to certain Confiding men who carried them to the places appointed and there solicited as many as they could possibly to Sign the same not regarding so much the Quality as the Number of the Subscribers who for the most part were mean Mechanicks Illiterate ignorant Countrymen Servants Apprentices Journeymen and Children which Petitions they after delivered with great Numbers of People to the King or Parliament and were designed by them that then set them afoot not so much to perswade or intreat as to terrifie and compel every Petitioner being as it were Listed to force if he could not otherwise obtain his desire And accordingly this way was made use of when either the King or the Major part of either House would not be drawn otherwise to Comply with these Republicans Short View of the Late Troubles pag. 85 86. 89. 234. and afterwards when they came to be imployed against them or to cross their humours or Interests they discountenanced them as much as they could tho all this would have been too little if they had not made use of Arms against these bold Suiters the Apprentices of London July the 26. 1647. shutting up the Commons Doors and Compelling them to yield the City the Ordering of their own Militia and also to pass a Vote Ibid. 248. Ib. 282 283. That the King should be admitted to come to London to Treat which tho it were sufficiently revenged yet when afterwards Essex and * May 26 48. Surrey Petitioned again for a Peace in that manner they sent the Guards to beat them away whereupon divers were wounded and some slain And as to the Kentish-men who by their Grand Jury about the same time had framed a Petition for Peace in the Name of the whole Shire they by the Committee for that County prohibited the same by a Printed Paper published in all the Churches Branding it to be SEDITIOUS and TUMULTUOUS and saying that They would hang up two in every Parish that were promoters of it and Sequester the rest Which was to declare themselves Abhorrers with a Vengeance Yet this Unruly Engine was the only tool our Sober Protestants could at this time think powerful enough to Compel his Majesty to recede from his declared Resolution and permit the Parliament to Sit forthwith and the method they used was precisely the same that had been imployed against his Majesty's Father of Blessed Memory viz. these Petitions were drawn by their Clubbs and Cabals in London or some say onely transcribed from an Old 41. Copy and then sent down by trusty men who had five shillings per Centum for procuring hands and * The Instructions were That it mattered not tho they were neither Gentlemen nor Free-holders but that they the Procurers of Subscriptions should get as many Hands as they could that of all Sorts and Ages Degrees and Qualities not caring who they were so the Number was great And I have been told this Story from Credible hands One of these Procurers coming to a Godly Weaver in Essex to get his hand to the Petition bethought himself that the Weaver had a Boy to his Son and asked if he would not Subscribe too Yes replyed the Weaver if he were at home but he is now gone with a Cow to a Neighbour's Bull. That is nothing said the Petition-Monger I can set his hand Which he accordingly presently did and made the poor Boy become an humble Supplicant to the King when he thought of nothing less But I must confess they varied in one thing from the Old method for they did not present them as heretofore by the hands of great Multitudes of the Petitioners but sent them by some few persons of the better sort which was a Civility was not so much paid to his Majesty as his Guards who might have endangered these Gentlemen Orators Skulls if they had made as bold with the Son as their Predecessors did with the Unarmed Father For my part when I reflect seriously on this Stratagem I cannot perswade my self they had any great hope to prevail upon the King by it who too well remembred what ill Consequences had followed this way of proceeding in the Reign of his Father to Countenance it in his own by granting any thing that was so asked And therefore I conceive the Cunningest of them had these further ends in it First to Engage men by these Subscriptions to be more fast to them and their designs Secondly To Try whether the People might be brought to Tumult if they had occasion for it Thirdly To incense them the more against the Government if these Petitions were denyed by representing it as a personal injury to them every man being Naturally more fond of his own than anothers Counsel Fourthly to shew the Number and Strength of their Adherents Fifthly To make them known each to other to which end the Odd Phrases Whining Tones Devout shruggs of old and the Green Ribbans of late were taken up also But whatever the design was his Majesty having the Authority of a Statute on his side wisely provided in better times had the Address to disappoint this Project 13 Cor. 2. c. 5. as also by the Judgment of all the Judges 2 Jacobi First by a Proclamation which prohibited this * Practise Exercise as Illegal and Tumultuous and tending to Sedition and Rebellion Secondly by discountenancing and sharply reprehending those that were so silly as to present them Thirdly by encouraging another Sort of persons who upon better grounds were as ready to detest and abhor them in a more Regular and Legal way and
these being for the most part men of Authority in their Country so quelled this many-headed Hydra that the triple Cordial of a Commons Vote have not been able since to Revive it And so I shall take my leave of it till I come to those Votes and the proceedings upon them In the Interim I desire my dear Countrymen they would reflect Seriously upon what is here said and remember what fruits they reaped of this pernicious seed the last time they were prompted by this Sort of men to the use of it and how they Treated the Surrey and Kentish men for using it to a purpose for which it was never designed the procuring PEACE His Majesty therefore Prorogued the Parliament from the 17th of October to the 26 of January and then meeting them in Person and making a Gracious Speech to them Prorogued them to the 15th of April and then to the 17th of May and from thence to the First of July and so on to the 22d of the same and thence to the 23d of August and from thence to the 21. of October 1679. when he declared they should finally Sit according to his former Resolution which the Petitions had more confirmed him in In the Interim several things hapned worth the taking Notice of as giving us some Light into the Designs of the Common-wealth Party and the Temper of the Dissenters by which we may Judge what we shall meet with at their hands if ever they prevail again The first I will Instance in was their Treatment of the London Apprentices Some of them had been busy in Burning the Pope and after that had been drawn in to Sign the Petition but finding they had disobliged others by it L'Estrange's Narr of the Plot pag. 15. 4 to to give some Satisfaction they gave Notice in Print That they would burn the Rump the 29th of May following and this was taken for such an affront by the Young Gentlemen of that Old Family of Rumpers that presently all the Prentices were made Traytors Conspirators most of them said to be Papists for which several of them were Imprisoned and it was much grief of heart to the Merciful Rumpers too that they were not Hanged and one of them with great regret told the following Parliament That he thought Cap. Tom. was at Tangier Exact Collection of Debated p. 112. who should have headed the Apprentices Mutiny in London and if saith the Gentleman I be not Mis-informed is a Captain too for that intended Eminent Service A Sad Story if it was true and there was no mis-information in the case some where or other but this was onely meant for a Kind Reflection on the Government which is grown of late strangely in Love with Mutinies and doubtless made Capt. Tom a Captain there not onely to reward him for his Eminent Intended Service in London but to put him into a Capacity of promoting a Tumult or Mutiny there too Upon this Occasion I am shrewdly tempted to remember some of the 41. Tumults and Mutinies in behalf of the Rump but because they were not Popish but Puritan Mutinies and for the Service of the Common-wealth of England I will forbear it Onely I will give the World a Caution not to be mightily Surprized if afterwards the Late Addressing Apprentices be clawed away for Papists and Mutineers too If there be not too many of them In the beginning of May his Majesty had two or three Fits of an Ague which went off again without any great hazard to his Life yet this occasioned some considerable Events In one of the Fits there was some tampering among his back-Friends for the Proclaiming his Grace the D. of M. King in case his Majesty should die of that Sickness About that time that there was a Pamphlet Printed to make out a Title for him too pretending to some Strange Discoveries to be made of a Black Box that should do the D. much Kindness but tho his Majesty and the Privy-Council took all the Care imaginable to discover the Author of this Black Box-discourse it could not be found And to prevent the Ill Effects of such Rumors for the future his Majesty Published a Declaration the 2 d. of June 1679. which tho it hath been already printed and is Long yet because it may be very hard to produce it some Years hence I will take the pains to Insert it here from the Gazette of the 7th of June 1680. CHARLES R. WE cannot but take Notice of the great Industry and Malice wherewith some men of a Seditious and Restless Spirit do spread abroad a most False and Scandalous Report of A Marriage or Contract of Marriage supposed to be had and made between Vs and one Mrs. Walters alias Barlow now Deceased Mother of the present Duke of Monmouth aiming thereby to fill the Minds of Our Loving Subjects with Doubts and Fears and if possible to divide them into Parties and Factions and as much as in them lies to bring into question the Clear Vndoubted Right of Our True and Lawful Heirs and Successors to the Crown We have therefore thought Our Self Obliged to Let our Loving Subjects see what steps We cut of Our Care of them and their Posterity have already made in order to Obviate the Ill Consequences that so dangerous and Malicious a Report may have in Future Times upon the Peace of Our Kingdoms In January Last was Twelvemonth We made a Declaration written with Our Own Hand in the Words following THere being a False and Malicious Report Industriously spread abroad by Some Who are Neither Friends to Me nor the Duke of Monmouth as if I should have been Either Contracted or Married to his Mother and though I am most Confident that this Idle Story cannot have any Effect in this Age Yet I thought it my Duty in relation to the true Succession of this Crown and that future Ages may not have any pretence to give disturbance upon that Score or any other of this Nature to declare as I do here declare in the presence of Almighty God That I was never Married nor gave any Contract to any Woman whatsoever but to My Wife Queen Catherine to whom I am now Married In Witness whereof I have set My Hand at White-Hall the Sixth of January 1679. This Declaration I made in the Presence of CHARLES R. W. Cant. H. Finch C. H. Coventry J. Williamson To strengthen which Declaration We did in March following which was March last was Twelve-month make a more Publick Declaration in Our Privy Council written likewise with Our Own Hand and having caused a true Transcript thereof to be Entred in Our Council Books We Signed it and caused the Lords of Our Privy Council then attending Vs in Council to Subscribe the same likewise and We Ordered the Original to be kept in the Council Chest where it Now remains The Entry whereof in the Council Book is in these words following At the Court at White-Hall March 3 d. 1679. Present The
No person should be Admitted to come to them but such as should have occasion to bring them Necessaries On Friday the 10th of December Captain Castle was found and Voted guilty of offending against the Rights of the Subject by Obstructing Petitioning to His Majesty for the Sitting of that Parliament The same day the Commons Ordered an Impeachment to be prepared against Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas for High Crimes and Misdemeanors viz. for Advising the Proclamation against Tumultuous Petitions Then they Voted That the Imprisonment of one Peter Norris at Dover by the Order of Sir Leoline Jenkins was Illegal and Arbitrary and an Obstruction to the Evidence for the Discovery of the Horrid Popish Plott This was the business for which Sheridon and Day were imprisoned On Munday the 13th A Bill for Exportation of Cloth and other Woollen Manufactures into Turkey being read the second time and a Debate arising thereupon it was Ordered that it should lie upon the Clerks Table They Ordered also That the Committee appointed to look into and prepare Evidence against the Lords in the Tower do Examine the Evidence against all persons concerned in the Popish Plot. And they were to report the Names of such persons together with their Opinions therein to the House upon the Debate And also that Leave should be given to bring in a Bill for Banishing of all Papists and suspected Papists from the Cities of London and Westminster and XX miles of the same with Clauses therein for disarming of all Papists and for Pains and Penalties against all such Papists or suspected Papists as should Ride Go or be Armed And that Lists of them should be brought in by the Members When ever any Law pass against suspected Papists great care ought to be taken to limit that Loose term or great Mischiefs will insue On Tuesday the 14th of December Complaint was made That one Herbert Herring who had been ordered to be taken into Custody for a Breach of Priviledge did abscond himself to avoid the Execution of the said Order whereupon it was Resolved That if he did not render himself by Saturday that House would proceed against him by Bill in Parliament for endeavouring by his absconding to Avoid the Justice of the House This was a way never to want Work if every Fugitive Attorney or Porter that had broke the Priviledge of the House was to be brought in by Bill Sir Robert Peyton a Member of their House was the Next that fell under their displeasure being said to Have had Secret Negotiation with the Duke of Y. by the Means of the Earl of Peterborough Mrs. Cellier and Mr. Gadbury at such time as they were turning the Popish Plot upon the Protestants i. e. the Presbyterians it seems they are THE Protestants For which he was Ordered after his defence to be Expelled the House and to be brought to the Bar to receive the Censure of the House upon his Knees from the Speaker Which was done with so little respect to the Quality of the person that after the Dissolution of the Parliament he sent the Speaker a Challenge for which he was Committed having been before committed to the Serjeant for not being at hand when it should have been first done by the Speaker So he was twice Committed and Expell'd too but by what Law the House of Commons proceeded I know not It is the Interest both of the Members and of Us whom they represent to take care that this be not left to them for here was a Member Expelled not for being a party to that Conspiracy of the Papists but for having Secret Negotiations with the Duke of York at that time and if this be allowed that they may Expel for what cause they please be there Law or be there none then have the greater part of the House an Absolute and Arbitrary power over the lesser part and if either Side do by accident get the Advantage of the other by a Single Vote they may Expel them as they please which must Necessarily end in Confusion and Slavery On Wednesday the 15th of December the House resolved into a Committee of the whole House to Consider of Ways and Means to Secure this Kingdom against Popery and Arbitrary Power and Resolved upon two Votes viz. Resolved Nemine Contradicente That this House doth agree with the Committee That one Means for the Suppressing Popery is That a Bill be brought in to banish immediately all the Considerable Papists of England out of the Kings Dominions Resolved N. C. That this House doth agree with the Committee That a Bill be brought in for an Association of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects for the Safety of his Majesties Person * Note here is no mention of his Majesties Government in this Association the Defence of the Protestant Religion and the Preservation of his Majesties Protestant Subjects against all Invasions and Oppositions whatsoever and for preventing the Duke of York or any Papist from Succeeding to the Crown And ordered a Committee to be appointed to prepare and bring in a Bill pursuant to the first of the said Resolves The latter was taken up to Supply the Bill of Exclusion which bad been thrown out by the Lords and was never prosecuted any further for when they came to draw the Bill it was found impracticable without involving us presently in a Civil War For an Association signifies nothing without a Head to govern and direct it if the King be made the Head then we are where we were and it is to no purpose If another person be made So then there is two distinct Governments in the same Kingdom which can never stand together a Month without imbroyling themselves and the People This the Holy League of France proved Experimentally true and the same Event will always follow Besides there was no reason to Expect that either his Majesty or the House of Lords would yield to this way of Exclusion which was worse than the former Tho if that had passed it would have signified nothing without an Association or a Standing Army as the Author of the Seasonable Address to both Houses of Parliament hath well proved This day also His Majesty made a Speech to both the Houses which I will insert when I come to the Answer of the Commons to it On Thursday the 16th of December A Petition of Divers Inhabitants in the County of Surry Complaining of the proceedings in an Ecclesiastical Court against them being read it was referred to a Committee to bring in a Bill or Bills for Regulating the proceedings of such Courts A Petition of Joshua Brook and other Merchants against the African Company was also read and referred to a Committee Mr. Booth reporting from the Committee to whom the Bill for the better Regulating the Tryals of the Peers of England was committed An Amendment to be made and a Clause to be Added and thereupon a Motion being made to bring in a Clause